Albanian accused of two murders who got British citizenship under a false name will NOT be deported home because it 'would be flagrant denial of his human rights'
Ilirian Zeqaj, 52, is accused by authorities in Albania of shooting dead two men in the late 1990s, which he denies, before claiming asylum and being granted citizenship in the UK.
He challenged a British judge's decision from May last year that he could be extradited to stand trial for a second time, with his lawyers telling a hearing in London last month that extradition would subject him to a breach of his right to a fair trial and that it would be 'unjust and oppressive'.
In a ruling on Wednesday, Lord Justice Popplewell and Mr Justice Saini said that Mr Zeqaj should not be extradited and ordered his discharge, finding that he would face trial as a 'consequence of a fundamentally unfair' court process in Albania, which would 'amount to a flagrant denial' of his human rights.
In their judgment, the judges said Mr Zeqaj and another man, believed to be his cousin or brother, are alleged to have carried out what was thought to have been a 'revenge killing' of two men at some point in 1998 or 1999.
Mr Zeqaj arrived in the UK in November 1999 and claimed asylum under a false name, but the judges said there was 'no evidence that he was fleeing from justice at this time'.
They said: 'The appellant says that he made an asylum claim under an assumed Kosovan Albanian name because he was told this would enhance his chances of obtaining asylum in the UK.'
Mr Zeqaj was convicted in his absence of both murders and illegal possession of military weapons by an Albanian court in 2002, but was granted asylum in the UK in 2005 and British citizenship the following year.
He was extradited to Albania in 2013, but won an appeal against his conviction and was then acquitted at a retrial, having claimed that he was serving others coffee at the time the gunshots were heard and that there was no forensic evidence linking him to the murders.
Mr Zeqaj then returned to the UK in December 2014, but an Albanian court quashed his acquittal and ordered a retrial in 2017, at a hearing at which neither Mr Zeqaj or his lawyer were present.
After the Albanian authorities sought Mr Zeqaj's extradition for a second time, in May 2024, a British judge ruled that he could be extradited again, which was approved by the Home Secretary in July last year.
But Lord Justice Popplewell and Mr Justice Saini said that all five of the judges who quashed Mr Zeqaj's appeal and ordered a retrial had been dismissed from office.
They also said that despite the retrial originally beginning in 2017, the judges were dismissed for allegedly 'failing the vetting process'.
While the retrial restarted in 2020, it has still not concluded.
In their ruling, the judges said that the fact that the five judges who quashed Mr Zeqaj's acquittal had been dismissed was proof that they were 'plainly not an 'independent and impartial' tribunal, and that Mr Zeqaj not being represented was 'unfair and prejudicial'.
They added that there 'still seems no end point' to the retrial, despite the 'enhanced obligation on the Albanian authorities to proceed with expedition'.
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